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Gingrich Not Palestinians is the Invented Person

One thing that can’t be said about erstwhile GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is that he doesn’t lack gall. His quip that the Palestinians are an “invented” people was so galling that even some of his GOP presidential sparring partners had to blanche. Keep in mind the GOP contenders all to a person are about as staunch of supporters of Israel that you’ll find on the planet. But they also recognized that the foot-in-the mouth, headline grabbing, a historical absurdity that Gingrich uttered about the Palestinians and coming from a leading GOP presidential contender no less, simply tosses more kerosene, on the always inflammatory Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Gingrich’s silliness comes at a time when diplomats of all stripes are working hard to break the logjam in Middle East talks and jumpstart negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian officials.

It does everything to taint and jade the Middle East peace process, while further increasing tensions and strains in the region. But considering that the dumb “invention” quip comes from a guy who’s gone through every tortured gyration in recent months to unload his mountainous baggage, and to retract, sanitize, and contradict his statements and positions uttered over the past two decades, and that includes his smiling embrace with Yasser Arafat in 1997 and his sympathetic words about the Palestinians, then nothing that comes out of his mouth should surprise.

Gingrich got the word “invention” right. He just got the group he applied it to wrong. He really meant himself.